party lines. still, what do you see in those numbers? >> it's not all surprising. the president from the start called this investigation fake news and called the russian attack a hoax. so, you know, 30% is probably a fairly good number of those people who, you know, as we've come to refer to them, are the fifth avenue republicans. consistent with the idea that the president put out there that he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and people would be totally fine with that. i'm sad to see that number is 30%, but i think that's what pop lates that group of people. >> the other word for that is his base. i think fifth avenue republicans is catchy. but congressman jim himes, thank you very much for previewing what's going to happen today with us. >> thanks. >> thanks to our international viewers for watching. u.s. viewers, "new day" continues right now. >> the teachers love the students and wa to protect those students. >> i listened to the first grade

teachers that don't want to be pistol packing first grade teachers. >> i don't think it's right for anyone so say teachers can't teach. >> we have to fight them sometimes. >> president appears to be backing away from this idea that the age limit should be raised to 21 for purchase of assault weapons. >> he says one thing and gets in a room with nra and flipped his point of view. >> peterson probably thought he was a brave guy but he choked. >> the school resource officer says he is not a coward as one victim thanks the first responder who saved her life. >> i definitely wouldn't be here without it. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alison come rat toe. >> welcome to your new day. president trump pressuring lawmakers to change the nation's gun laws after the florida school massacre. sources are telling cnn president trump appears to be backing away, though, from the idea of raising the age limit to buy rifles.

president also saying he would have rushed into the school even if he did not have a gun just to stop the carnage. >> republicans and democrats are now haggling over solutions even modest improvement to background checks. what can they get done today? there's also intensifying scrutiny of how the local sheriff handled repeated warning about these school killer. why republicans are beating the drum for the sheriff to resign. let's begin our coverage with cnn abby phillips live at the white house with our top story. good morning, abby. >> reporter: good morning. president trump has been saying publicly that he's willing to go against the national rifle against to push gun control measures, but the question remains, how far is he really willing to go to get congress to act? >> don't worry about the nra. they're on our side. half of you are so afraid of the nra. there's nothing to be afraid of. >> reporter: president trump urging the nation's governors to

fearlessly challenge the powerful gun lobby to implement stricter background checks. >> you know, if they're not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. okay? they're doing what they think is right. >> reporter: it comes after the weekend meetings with the leaders of the nra. despite his apparent willing to break with nra positions, sources tell cnn the president appears to be backing away from changing the legal age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21 after publicly considering the idea. the white house says the president did not discuss the age limit issue with governors. >> when they don't bring it up, that's very telling to him. >> we go to war at 18. then you vote at 18 but you can't buy a rifle? >> it's very inconsistent. >> reporter: as congress struggles to find common ground, the president signaling a willingness to take executive action against bump stocks. >> bump stocks, we're writing that out. i'm writing it out myself. i don't care with congress does it myself or not. i'm writing it out myself. >> reporter: the president doubling down on his criticism of broward county deputies who didn't rush into the school to

save lives. >> the way they performed was frankly disgusting. >> reporter: mr. trump going so far as to suggest that he would have acted even if he didn't have a gun. >> i really believe i would run in there if i didn't have a weapon. i think most of the people in this room would have done that, too. because i know most of you. but the way they performed was really a disgrace. >> reporter: the president making the argument again for arming teachers. >> they don't love the students. they don't know the students. the teachers love the students and want to protect those students. >> reporter: washington state democratic governor rejects that idea. >> educators should educate and should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. i suggest we need a little less tweeting here, a little more listening. >> reporter: lawmakers floating a few proposals during congress's first day back in session, including the fix nix bill a plan to give incentives to states and federal agencies to make more entries into the background check system.

a universal background checks bill, a draft proposal to raise the purchase age for long guns and an assault weapons ban. while the president today has meetings with bipartisan groups of lawmakers, which will give him another opportunity to hear some feedback about these proposals on gun laws. just a couple minutes ago, he broke a relatively long period of silence on twitter and he tweeted this morning apparently responding to something that he is watching on television today. >> thank you very much, abby. joining us now to talk about this, john avlon and a. a.b.-stoddard.

we're not sure exactly what that means. emphasis on mental health he's been talking about, ending sales of bump stocks. he says he'll do it himself if congress isn't willing to do it now. we don't have raising the minimum age to purchase rifles because our sources suggest that maybe he's backed off that. so that's where it looks like we are, a.b., at the moment, with him, with his leadership on this. >> right. it's notable that he actually said for the first time -- sometimes you have to fight the nra. he met with them over the weekend. they obviously expressed their opposition to an age restriction. they are opposed to that and probably made that quite clear. he's backed off that. the idea that he would have hogan, a white house spokesperson say if the governors weren't clambering for it at the meeting, maybe there's no appetite for it. that seems to be off the table. the bump stocks thing, the fix nix which is a way to coerce more record -- more submissions

into the background. >> background check. that has to happen for sure. >> but that doesn't lead to a comprehensive background check. we don't know what the president means on that. the fight is always in the background check, how long, how rigorous the assessment is. how long it takes to wait. what is the cry steer ya. that's really where the fight is. and you look at senator manchin, trying to do this in 2011. i don't see a lot of republican appetite for it at this point. >> 97% of americans, according to the quinnipiac poll support it. the devil is in the details. congress is where good ideas go to die. 97% of americans support it. that may give courage or at least political cover for people to do what they know is the right thing. >> really? isn't that number -- here is another chance for me to get shot down on the panel today. 97%. i get that's what it is in the poll. yes, this is different because you have survivors and victims here who are able to speak for

themselves in the way that we don't usually see and they're unusually sympathetic. but what the metric should be is will people vote on this issue at the polls in a way that motivates the conversation of new restrictions, better rules, better vetting? we have never seen that, john. >> yes. >> we've only seen people come out to vote to reward the opposite. i take the 97 number, but i'm feeling like it's a little deceptive. >> look, we can look that gift horse in the mouth. 97% of america don't agree on apple pie and motherhood. if that 3% can block progress on this in congress, then we got -- >> i'm saying a big chunk of the 97 won't vote on it. >> i hear what you're saying on single issue. we'll see whether people are motivated in the same way. that's a fair standard. let's look at the overwhelming support and rather than simply saying nothing happened after sandy hook, nothing is going to happen now.

what progress can be made? where can the president find common ground? he seems to be trying to lead. let's see what we can get down the field. >> the new town example is a good one. when federally they didn't have the spine to do anything, connecticut acted and changed gun violence in their state. to be clear, when they beefed up laws, gun violence went down in their state. now florida is looking at doing the same thing. here is what's on the table. ban sale of all firearms to anyone under 21. increase the age limit. require a three-day waiting period for purchases. create what -- this is what connecticut did, the risk protection order. so if somebody calls and says, somebody is a danger to himself or to a school or others, they can temporarily take away that person's firearms. and then ban sale of bump stocks. so maybe this is where we'll see progress. >> well, that's where progress -- again, the most substantive solutions lie in the area of a more comprehensive background check combined with

some kind of rigorous mental health responses where you lose the right to have a firearm and it's taken from you if you exhibit certain signs and behaviors. that needs to be tightened up. we're a long way from knowing what the president will fight for or what republicans are going to push on. this issue of single issue voting, it makes clear to me they're going to get through their primary season and we're not going to see anything march, april or may. >> you don't think there's going to be any action in washington, d.c.? >> no, they may be a fix nix or bump stocks. >> but they won't do universal sales. >> right. >> they're not going to make all sales -- look, scott taylor sa good man and served this country with honor and congressman of virginia. he wouldn't move on universal background checks and didn't want to fill in the blanks. all he has to say is i don't want these. how are you making background checks better if you don't cover all sales? the problem isn't, a.b., we can

look at the stats all day. we're drowning in them right now. i didn't know you had this thing on your record. i didn't know that you had been adjudicated mentally ill. there are problems with communications but they're not the fundamental problem with this, a.b. that's not the real fix that the system needs. it needs to cover everything and include information about people under treatment or distress that it doesn't right now. >> right. >> but i don't think we're going to get beyond fix nix and bump stocks and get to that unless republicans see -- until and unless they see that this new energy is actually going to be measurable in polls and be a threat to them in november. then i think we would see something. until then, it will be stuff that democrats and the other say no. >> it's the old political lines, i'm not going to see the light until you make me feel the heat and are people going to apply that sustained pressure on this issue. before we get to that, can we take advantage of the common ground that seems to exist even

on modest measures at a time when there's overwhelming support. we have to watch out for conceal and carry in the house. keep an eye on that. that's a way to kill this even in the grace of overwhelming support. let's move on to something else that's happening in washington. as you know, ivanka went to represent the u.s. and the white house to korea for the closing ceremonies of the olympics. and cnn's reporting is that that caused tension inside the white house because, you know, general john kelly might not have thought that she was qualified. she hasn't been involved in any north korean talks. she doesn't know anything about diplomacy. >> this is amazing because we have heard reports for weeks that general h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser and chief of staff general john kelly are both perhaps leaving. so the idea that this would leak means he's either trying to lose his job, john kelly is so

frustrated, that he's having these conversations with people that he knows will leak this or he's being set up. and nothing -- i would put nothing past this west wing in terms of their hunger game. so that's really dramatic that he would -- the news now is that he resisted it before she went and that this leaked out after she came home. i think it's very telling about that struggle he was able for a while to deal with the fact that there is a three-some that runs this government, the president, the son-in-law and the daughter. it's imparen trabl. he depends on them entirely. and that i think the chief of staff was willing to put up with that for a while and apparently he can't take it anymore. that means probably he's going to leave. >> remember this is the united states of america and we tend not to have son-in-law and daughters running governments historically. if kelly is feeling frustration about ivanka, he certainly feels

it about jared. we may well go to war with if they continue to have nuclear weapons. is isn't simply niceties. this is serious stuff. that's why it happens. this is all happening a the president premier of china gave himself life time appointment. this is serious stuff and freelancing in a fur coat ain't going to cut it. >> freelancing in a fur coat. >> i got it. >> i heard it. >> good morning. >> john avlon, a.b. stoddard. >> we'll show pictures later. thank you guys very much. so a republican congressman and combat veteran with a change of heart about guns after the parkland massacre. he tells us why he wants these weapons off the streets and what he plans to do next. when did you see the sign? when i needed to create a better visitor experience.

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one lawmaker hoping to attend is republican congressman brian mast of florida. a army combat veteran a purple heart recipient and is now calling for an assault weapons ban. in a new york times op-ed he writes -- my rifle was very similar to the ar-15 style semiautomatic weapon used to kill students, teachers and a coach i knew at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida, where i once lived. we used it because it was the most lethal, the best for killing our enemies. and i know that my community, our schools and public gathering places are not made safer by any person having access to the best killing tool the army could put in my hands. i cannot support the primary weapon i used to defend our people being used to kill children i swore to defend. republican congressman brian mast joins us now. congressman, thanks for being here. >> happy to join you. >> did you feel this way about calling for an assault weapons been before parkland?

>> you know, the impetus for me writing that op-ed was really, i was sitting around with my family. i was out at a public place. i was watching my kids play in a pool with probably 100 other kids and i was thinking about what had just happened in parkland. but i'm looking around at the situation around me and saying, this is very similar to what happened in las vegas. i was concealing and carrying my 9 millimeter right at that moment, as i normally do. but i'm saying, myself and my family and all these other kids down here are sitting ducks to the next stephen paddock who conducted that assault in las vegas. we have to do something about this. we have to protect our communities. our theaters, certainly our schools. that's where the conversation has been. this goes beyond schools. >> you're so interesting to talk to congressman, because you just have so many credentials. you have an a-rating from the nra. you, as we said, are a combat veteran. you're a republican. you have a firearm. obviously you know how to use

one. you did so in combat. and so what do you say to the argument that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun that matches his? >> i know all of these detractio detractions. the fact that there is no evil firearm. that is the truth. there are evil people and there are good people. and that firearm is a function of it. you do have to be able to stop a bad guy with a good person with that capability. but i look at this tactically. like i said in that situation with my 9 millimeter. i don't want to die because of a lack of shooting back one day. we don't conceal and carry ar-15s. if i'm not concealing and carrying that, i'm at a very specific tactical disadvantage for anybody coming at me with that kind of fire power. here is an easy example. let's take what happened with the broward sheriff's officers down there in parkland. we had a school resource officer that didn't enter the school and we had what seems to be three other broward sheriff's officers

that didn't enter the school. they were in a holding pattern. these are men with tactical training, with body armor and with pistols who wouldn't go in there because they were basically brought to being frozen by an 18-year-old with an ar-15. that should give us pause the power of that platform. >> that's not the first time. columbine had armed officers. the school shooting in oregon, that's, i believe, a concealed carry state. so, there were people there with weapons but it's very hard to, as we know, to stop a crazed gunman with an ar-15. it just is. you know, listen, you've heard all of the arguments on the other side, but i just want to bounce some of you because i know you thought them through. so dana lash, she said that she needs her ar-15. when she was a single, young woman, that's the gun that she needed for home protection. so listen to this.

>> the first that i ever purchased in terms of long guns was a shotgun and ended up getting an ar-15. in fact, that is what women -- that's the most popular home defense rifle for women in the united states of america. i don't want anyone to have their right to be able to defend themselves denied. there are adults at 20 years old. i want them to protect themselves. >> 20-year-old women need ar-15s, congressman. >> look, i would say i don't want anybody to have the right to defend themselves in the way they see fit denied either. our second amendment is an unimpeachable god-given right to defend ourselves. one of the most basic rights. but we recognize that there is a balance between what is the level of lethality and what is that level of fire power and does that fall in line? i can't go out right now and buy what was known as an m 249 squad automatic weapon. the same size round that the ar-15 shoots except it shoots 500 rounds a minute. it's a military machine gun for

all intents and purposes. i can't go purchase that. we understand that that's a line. that would probably be even better for home defense than what that ar-15 is, but we recognize that there's a line somewhere that we say here is the second amendment and here is public safety. and there's room. they're not mutually exclusive to one another. that's what i would say to ms. lash. >> congressman, have you talked to your fellow republicans on capitol hill about this? >> you know, we just got back into washington yesterday. yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon. i had a lot of conversations about between i arrived in washington and this morning. we have a conference meeting this morning as we do every tuesday. and i'm going to be getting up there and making my plea to my fellow republican congressmen in our behind closed door conference talking about, you know, really this. i think this is one of the most important things we can say. i haven't met one republican and had this conversation where they said, yeah. i've got full faith in the system that we're not going to put another ar-15 in the hands of the next nikolas cruz or omar

mateen. i don't have any confidence in the system stopping that. well, if we don't have confidence in that going on in the system, then how do we say we go forward and continue these sales? let's pause. let's assess. let's see what's going on in the system. let's call on the president to do something similar to what i said was the travel ban. you can do a travel ban for people coming into this country. do a ban on purchases of these assault-style weapons, tactical style weapons so we can assess the whole situation and get back to the american people in a responsible way. >> are your republican colleagues receptive? >> many of them are. many of them have come up to me, you know, kind of more so one on one a little bit quietly. you know thu, they're not necessarily wanting to have this conversation in front of everybody, good job on you. good job on taking a stand. good job in saying that. how is that playing? what are people saying to you back in your district? they want to know what is the reception about what i've heard about what i've said. of course you can imagine that's been a very mixed bag.

>> very quickly, because senator marco rubio was at our cnn town hall listening to the community there, have you spoken to him directly? >> i have not spoken to senator marco rubio yet. i would say this to everybody listening, our president, 435 members of congress, our senate, sheriff's office, police office, every student, every parent, every school board, we have to come together. we have to come together with this commitment. not one more death inside of a school. not one more school shooting. we have to come together with that. if we can't, who are we? >> thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on this with us. it's hard to find somebody better equipped who knows all sides of this. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> chris. >> so another aspect of this national debate is playing out in florida. delta is one of the many companies that cut off nra discounts in the wake of the florida school shooting. now one lawmaker is threatening

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you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. it is time for cnn money now. more than a dozen businesses are severing ties with the nra. but one state is calling out delta's decision to do so and is threatening to kill a generous tax break. chief business correspondent christine romans in our money center with more. i've never heard of this. >> i haven't either. the georgia senate moving quickly to block a jet fuel tax break for delta airlines. delta is based in atlanta after it stopped offering special discounted flights to nra members, georgia republicans vowed to kill part of a current bill that eliminates a tax on jet fuel to save delta tens of millions of dollars.

this could be a 50 million dollar move here. lieutenant governor tweeted this -- corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back. delta is one of a dozen companies under pressure from their consumers to end special discounts only for nra members. they call this political cowardess. they say they're ending something that was specially for the nra members. fed exis keeping its special rates for nra members. it distanced itself from nra views. we oppose assault rifles, quote, in the hands of civilians. >> did they give a preference to nra customers? >> yeah. there are special rates. >> it's not same thing keeping the rates for you. they're giving them a preference and keep giving them a preference. thank you so much as always. president trump urging governors don't be afraid of the

nra. the white house says one topic that did not come up in the white house meeting is raising the age limit for buying rifles like the ar-15 style gun used in the florida massacre which suggests maybe this isn't a good thing to fight for. is that right? joining us now is colorado's democratic governor. good to have you. >> good to be on. >> so report for us for a second. what was your take after the meeting? where do you think the president's head is? what do you think the prospect for change at the national level is? >> well, it doesn't look too encouraging we'll get anything resembling assault weapon ban or raising the age by which teenagers can buy these military-grade weapons. but obviously we're going to try to get something done, which is progress. >> they say fix nix. that's the real problem. there's not enough information sharing intraagency, intrastate with interagency and interstate that allows us to have good,

safe background checks. do you agree is that enough? >> i agree we need to fix nix, but i don't agree that that's enough. and if you look at certain common factors of shooting after shooting, it's almost always males. i mean, literally every time it's males. and a predominant number of young males, males under 21, to try to make it a little harder for them to acquire these military weapons. these weapons are designed not to hunt for elk. they're designed to kill people. kids shouldn't be getting their hands on these things. >> so, couple points of push back. one, the hunting community is saying the ar-15 is coming up in popularity as a hunting rifle and there are articles about that now. it's placed in the top 10 or 12 of weapons that can be used for hunting, of course, all the other ones are volt action or shotguns. so that's one aspect about the evolution of the gun culture with the ar-style rifle. the other is the age limit.

is the age limit a little bit of a distraction because in most i think it's only two of the last dozen or so school shootings have we seen the shooter is within that age of 18 to 21. is that really an effective measure? >> well, it's not the ultimate solution, but i think it's one of many things we should be looking at. why not -- why are we not talking about universal background checks, right, which we did in colorado? >> did it make a difference? >> that's hard to say what makes a difference. we haven't had a massive school shooting since then in colorado. it's hard to measure what implementations are going to have. >> that's the criticism, gov. if you cover private sales, sales intrafamily, gun show sales, you can't really enforce those laws, so you shouldn't have them. >> that's ridiculous. the bottom line is that -- almost every republican i know, civic leaders, board members of

large cultural institutions, almost every republican civic leader i know says universal background checks make perfect sense. it's really only the elected officials who depend on the nra for their campaign funding. they're the only ones saying, wait, wait, if this doesn't work perfectly, we shouldn't try it. it doesn't hurt anything to make sure that we keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. >> the white house says you guys weren't bringing up the age restrictions, so that's why it seems that the president has backed away from it. he wants to go with what seems will work for the group. >> in a forum like that, there wasn't enough time for everyone to ask questions and certainly there's a selection process that doesn't get every question that's out there raised. to say that just because no one spoke up about trying to raise the age limit doesn't mean it's not a good idea. again, let's say it only reduces school shootings by 10 or 20%. is that enough? does that make a difference? i don't know.

i would say so. >> and you didn't get the feeling that the president was going to take this on in a very big way yesterday? >> i wouldn't say that. i mean, i'm an optimist. most people when you're up -- becoming a governor, you have to be somewhat of an optimist. and i'm hopeful. he said very clearly he was going to get rid of bump stocks. he could do that without having to go through congress and just do it through his executive powers. my goodness, i hope he does that immediately. that makes a lot of sense. there's no reason -- bump stocks i would say are already illegal, right? we banned automatic weapons. why do we have something like a bump stock? >> well, you know, look, the gun experts will make all kinds of arguments about a bump stock. but your colleague, democrat senator dianne feinstein says the president can't get it done his way. he has to support legislation like her's. do you agree? >> i'm not a lawyer. it's a strength and a weakness. i do think however they do it we should encourage congress to do

it, we should encourage the president to do it. and the fact that the president went and negotiated with the nra over the past weekend, that was one of the things that he brought up and discussed is in itself interesting but it suggests that maybe the nra isn't hung up on bump stocks. this isn't something that helps them sell more assault weapons. >> what i thought was odd and help me with this because you've been in the business a long time and lots of lobbying groups that put out a lot more money than the nra. maybe they make it into the top ten money wise as a lobbying group. as a president of the united states i met with the nra. you have them wrong. they're ready to do something. they want to do something on the nra. since when do you look for cues from a special interest lobbying group for what to make policy for the united states of america on that kind of basis? i know special interest have a ton of influence, gov. i'm saying that it seems that the nra really does have, even though the president ironically says don't fear them, they have a lot of fear factor with these

politicia politicians. >> it is exceedingly rare for a special interest group would be brought into a discussion like that and say, well, i discussed with them and i think this is okay. you know -- well, what can i say. the nra is one of the most aggressively organized lobbying groups that there is. they inspire an amazing level of loyalty in their over 6 million members. and clearly there is something to do with people's second amendment rights that and their relationship to their weapons that is very important to people all over the country. i think it's part of this urban rural divide. people living in the urban suburban areas i think have to go listen harder and understand better the relationship that people -- a lot of people who hunt and live in the rural areas, they don't want someone in the cities coming and telling them anything to do with their guns. >> it's true. there seems to be a miscommunication or some type of

deception where none of that is threatened by anything that i've heard and yet every time you hear about any measure that comes up, the resistance is it's going to be a ban. there's going to be a registry and confiscation of our weapons. until you get past that, i don't think you get any kind of consensus. >> they think it will be a slippery slope. i try to pretty much every time i talk about gun safety, no one is talking about taking away your guns. we're trying to make sure that guns don't get in the hands of dangerous people. >> governor hickenlooper, thank you very much. appreciate your perspective on the show. >> thank you. up next, they survived the deadly mass shooting in las vegas. now after watching another attack they have a message for lawmakers.

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♪ so the florida high school massacre brought back very painful memories for survivors of last october's mass shooting at that las vegas concert which killed 58 people and injured hundreds. those survivors are now sharing how their lives have changed in hopes of helping the victims in florida. cnn sara sidner is live in los angeles with more. >> reporter: the victims of the vegas mass shooting say their lives will never be the same.

they want the parkland students to know healing is possible, though it may take a very long time. >> my cheek was shattered. so my scars, my eyebrow and then it goes over further. >> when you see somebody get shot in the head, you want to get involved. >> there was no life left in this boy that was with me. >> gunfire altered all of their lives during the deadliest mass shooting in modern american history. nearly five months later -- the school shooting in parkland florida brought their terror right back. >> i had an automatic reaction. i couldn't control it. i went into the bathroom and started vomiting. i was on the floor in a fetal position for two hours. >> reporter: they know what these children are going through and the long road to recovery. mother of two chelsea romo still has many surgeries to get through after shrapnel tore through both of her eyes, initially blinding her. >> i thought about as my daughter grew up and not seeing her get married or seeing her

become a woman and seeing her face as she matures, oh, it's crossed my mind. and that's why now i thank god everyday. >> she is now laser-focussed on simply seeing her children grow. survivors heather and christine are helping other survivors while nursing psychological wounds. she spent hours holding bullet riddled strangers as their lives slipped away. >> he got shot in the back of the head. so i reached under and i was holding a jeans jacket to the back of his head. the jacket had dropped and my finger was in the bullet hole in the back of his head. >> paige was hit in the elbow. her mother shot in the chest. she's still in the hospital awaiting her tenth surgery. these survivors agree, america's leaders have not done enough to tackle a uniquely american problem. >> i mean, after the las vegas shooting, they said it's not the right time to talk about guns,

after the texas shooting they said it's not the right time to talk about guns. after parkland, let them grieve. it's not the time. when is going to be the time? >> we all don't want to see babies die. we don't want to go to a concert or church and feel like we're going to get killed. we can do better than this as a nation. >> a mother of two is convinced a ban on semiautomatic assault-style weapons and bump stocks is a good start. her conviction is so strong she became the president of the las vegas chapter of the brady campaign against gun violence. >> i'm very pro-second amendment. i love guns. >> heather never thought new gun legislation was needed until being covered in the blood of strangers. >> do you have a problem with ar-15 assault style rifles? >> yeah. i have a problem with any -- with a killing machine. >> you have a problem with bump stocks? >> 100%. >> why is it hard for you to say we need to ban ar-assault style weapon. >> if people hear us say we want to get rid of one certain type

of gun, all they hear is you want to take my guns away. >> are you trying to take their guns away? >> no. >> 100% no. but is this a killing machine? yes. is it being used to commit mass murder? yes. you know what, we need to start somewhere. >> but not everyone who experienced that vegas mass shooting believes that new gun legislation is the key. heather knows that all too well. she has lost friends over her new gun stance and she says she has been feeling that spear of anger from trolls on the internet. >> just what we need. >> sara, thank you so much. their voices are so important. we hear this from the newtown survivors as well. every single mass shooting brings it all back, retraumatizes them all over again. nicole made the point of coming down to florida because they do have -- they're now part of this obviously very tragic club. >> yeah. you know, a couple of vegas survivors we're still in touch with and they're having rallies

and fundraisers to help raise money for the other victims. they've become a community. two quick things, one, we've never seen a group of survivors from one of these shootings say, you know what, we need more guns. we should all have more guns. we would have been okay. we would have been better off. it's very rare you hear that from someone who survivors one of these. the second thing is, i can't think of another threat to the general population that we fight to do nothing about except these mass shootings. i can't think of another one. when terrorism came, everybody wanted to figure out how to combat it. nobody stood up. the second amendment groups didn't stand up and say, no, no, no. i don't want any of that. let me keep my rights. i don't want to surrender aspect of my rights just to defend against terrorism. >> the second amendment advocates say but flying on a plane isn't protected in the constitution. but driving your car, of course you have a seat belt. it's not protected in the constitution. that's what they use. >> they will say it's not in the bill of rights. but of course all of these, the rights of travel, interstate commerce all are part of the

constitution. it's just a choice. what do you want to do as a society? what do you want to be about? that's where we are right now. >> we're continuing to have these conversations. another aspect of this story we're covering is the response the reaction by law enforcement. one man jumped into action, saved a teenage. he got shot multiple times. she got shot multiple times inside her florida high school. now a first responder describes the split-second decision that helped save a life. next. time to bask... in low prices! tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. refreshing, isn't it?. tripadvisor.

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at&t, not so much. get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call 1-800-501-6000. there's so many galling aspects to this story, so much pain, so many people who had to do things they never should have had to. one first responder is part of a group being credited with saving the life of a teenage girl seriously injured in the florida high school massacre. his name is lieutenant laz ojeda. he got emotional describing the decision that kept maddy wilford alive. >> i looked at her, i gave her a sternal rub. i go, hey, how old are you? no response.

second sternal rub, hey, how old are you? she came around. she told me she was 17. so at that point i looked at will and i go, will, we're going to north broward. it's only ten miles away. >> lieutenant ojeda of the coral springs fire department joins us now. good to have you, sir. how are you doing this morning? >> i'm doing great, chris. thank you for having me on your show. >> are you kidding me? it's a privilege for us to have you. the reason i ask, i know you're a first responders. i know you're the best of us, the men and women who do your job. this could not have been easy for you. what has it meant for you to have lived through this experience? >> well, that day -- the emotions came the day after, chris. that day we were on automatic. we were almost like numb struck,

if you will. i personally didn't feel what i felt after the fact. >> i can imagine. in the moment, you're doing what you're supposed to do. where has your head gone in the speculation about sheriffs that ran in, didn't run in, what they should have done, what's cowardice, what's bravery? what's perspective on that for people like us who don't understand being here, don't understand the job? >> all i can say, chris, is that from the stories we got, the two officers that responded, that were inside, our coral springs officers, officer fernandez and sergeant koz, at first glance they thought maddy was dead. something made them turn around and elicit some kind of response. when they did this, they summoned a nearby bso s.w.a.t.

officer who placed the chest seal on maddy, and that i think contributed to her being alive. she had a tension pneumo. had he not put that chest seal on her, her condition could have worsened to possible death. i don't know -- i can't comment on all the politics, but i know we were all there trying. >> you're a politician -- you're no politician, you're a life saveer. that's what we need in those kind of situations. when you went to that scene and looked around and saw what was going on, what did you think? >> like i told you initially, i was a little on automatic. i have to say i was not there by myself, chris. i had a great captain, cap puccino, who put us on the call. we came from the southern-most

point of the city. he put us on the call. when i asked for additional staffing, he provided it for me. i had a great driver engineer, robert lubinger, two firefighters, will glover and jeffrey unger who were there helping me all along. >> any hesitation when you got there that it may not be over, you may have to encounter somebody who is still looking to kill people? >> well, our department has clear policies and procedures. we don't go into the red zone. the pd takes care of that. we also have task forces that go into the yellow areas. we were in a staging zone waiting for maddy to be brought to us. >> you did it the right way, safety first. speaking of maddy. i want you to hear a little bit about what she says about her experience. >> absolutely. >> i'm madeline wilford.

i'd just like to say that i'm so grateful to be here, and it wouldn't be possible without those officers and first responders and these amazing doctors, especially all the love that everyone has sent. i was sitting on my couch today just thinking about all the letters and gifts everyone has given and just all the love that's been passed around. i definitely wouldn't be here without it. i just want to send my appreciation and love out to all of you. >> amazing recovery, obviously. maddy is still going to have a road in front of her. what does it mean to her that without you, without your team, without the people who were there, we may not be able to meet this young woman today? >> i am beyond words. all i can say is that i thank

god. maddy's mother did so yesterday, i thank god for allowing us to be an instrument in this miracle. that's what it means to me, i was an instrument. >> that's very well said, lieutenant. we keep focusing on what's wrong in this situation, what needs to inning cha. it's also important to look at what's done right. we say it all the time, in the worst of human events we seed the best of human reactions very often. you are proof of that, you and your team. so thank you for what you did that day and making sure that we had more survivors and fewer victims. thank you, lee tenant. the best to you going forward. >> thank you, chris, for having me on your show. appreciate it. >> the pleasure is ours. all right. we're following a lot of news this morning. what do you say? let's get after it. >> i really believe i'd run in even if i didn't have a weapon. >> it's